Bill Reynolds: Patriots offense gives new meaning to quickness

Fast-break football? Up-tempo football? Hurry-up football? Use any expression you want, for they all fit. And the Patriots are the master of it.

BILL REYNOLDS

Fast-break football?

Up-tempo football?

Hurry-up football?

Use any expression you want, for they all fit.

And the Patriots are the master of it.

Sunday against the Broncos was just the latest example, the Pats controlling the tempo throughout the game, the Broncos forever on their heels, as though the Pats offense is some sophisticated orchestra, a few flutes here, some horns there, a little drumbeat, beautiful music everywhere.

The stats say that the Pats had 444 net yards in total offense, compared with Denver’s 402, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story of the game.

For in many ways this was a triumph of style, as the Broncos defense forever seemed to be scrambling to get into position, trying to adjust to the Pats’ no-huddle style, one they so often used in the first three quarters of the game. This was the Broncos constantly under attack, constantly trying to adapt to a pace they didn’t want to play at.

Brady was talking about it Monday morning in his weekly gig on WEEI, saying how not only does it ramp up the game, but it puts tremendous pressure on the defense. That was all on display Sunday as the Pats controlled much of the tempo, almost as if the Pats were often running downhill at the Broncos.

This, of course, also plays into Brady’s obvious strengths: his intelligence, his decision-making, his ability to make quick decisions on where to go with the ball.

It also is just the latest example of how football has evolved.

For all games evolve.

And to watch today’s NFL from a generation ago, some old grainy newsreel from the ’70s, is almost like looking at a different game, one of the reasons why comparing different eras is all but impossible. Remember when the prevailing offensive philosophy was to establish the run? Remember when running back often was the glamour position?

No more.

Three yards and a cloud of dust went out with Woody Hayes, right?

Now virtually all of football is about throwing the ball, one that we’ve seen evolve here in Rhode Island, if we only knew what we were looking at at the time. URI’s Bob Griffin had teams throwing the ball 40-something times a game in the mid ’80s, way ahead of his time. Brown’s Mark Whipple brought a similar philosophy to the Ivy League in the ’90s, one Brown’s Phil Estes espouses to this day.

It was a style revolving around a quarterback who could throw, and quality receivers who could get open and make plays, all predicated on the philosophy of spreading the field.

Sound familiar?

To look at college football now is to see this philosophy everywhere, the new “passing game.” Gone are the days of not throwing the ball on first down. Gone are the days of spending half the year trying to establish the run. Gone are the days when running the ball was REAL football, and anything else was suspect.

That’s also true in today’s NFL, where the quarterbacks and the elite receivers are the stars, and so many of the running backs seem interchangeable, here today, gone tomorrow.

Remember when fullback was considered a key position? No more. Now they’re just guys, simply blocking backs, and that’s even if teams use them at all. The point is the game always is changing right in front of our eyes, always evolving.

Which brings us back to Brady, and the no-huddle.

To see him on Sunday engineering the Pats’ offense is to see some football version of a maestro, someone at the peak of his powers, all in an offense based on speed and putting constant pressure on the defense. Line up quick. Get people in formation quick. Run the play quick, whether it’s a run or a pass.

Can every quarterback do this?

Obviously not.

If nothing else, it takes high intelligence, the ability to quickly process information, quickly put your players into position, and identify where the pressure is likely to come from, all with your offensive coordinator’s voice screaming into your helmet. And that’s before the ball is actually snapped and the actual play begins.

The key is pace, of course.

The key is the Patriots defining how the game is going to be played, while their opponent has to adapt to that. It’s the philosophy behind pressing in basketball, the philosophy that says I will determine how the game is to be played, not you.

And as Brady reiterated Monday morning on WEEI all this puts tremendous pressure on a defense, not only the obvious pace of the game, but the pressure on them to get various personnel groups on the field and in the right formation. What he didn’t have to say was that the Broncos had trouble doing this, always seemed to be under stress.

All games have strategic little games inside of them.

This was a big part of Sunday’s.

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